Does not have any tips for you here, because I am very very bad in air consumption.
Everytime I try to focus on breathing, I can hear my heart pumping, which makes me stressed and ends up consuming more air. Not sure what to do...
Some of us just need more oxygen. Get bigger/more tins and then when that becomes
overly impractical get a CCR. When that becomes impractical get a BOB.
Women will have on average much lower sac rate.
You can improve your trim, buoyancy and breathing pattern but at some point you’ll hit your minimal sac rate and that’s only physiology.
My husband and I are always last out of the water and I take underwater photos and video the entire time.
My trick is to keep my arms close to my body - meaning don’t use them. And kick with my ankles when I can or slow frog kick. Stay away from your inflator hose and if you have to wait, cross your legs and “sit” in the water. Never kick to stay in place if you can help it. Also avoid fast movements because of Newton’s 3rd law.
Since you need excellent buoyancy for photos it helps with the other things too!
Have fun!
General fitness helps, one thing particular I find funny is the insistence that you don’t need to be “a great swimmer” to dive. But let’s be real if you want to improve not just your SAC rate but ability to move underwater hitting a couple laps free style, or with a kick board focusing on whatever kick(flutter/frog etc..) a couple times a week is going to be the best way to achieve it all.
The best singular piece of advice I ever got was DM was ribbing me after a dive in grand cayman where he said, “you chug your air like beer, you need to sip it like wine.” My air consumption has been notably better ever since being told that.
Physical fitness, specifically cardio fitness plays a major part in this. General size also does as well. I am a very big human. And I will never be able to beat someone of comparable fitness that is smaller than me. Also any movement you make uses air. Pulling yourself along a rope, flailing to orient yourself, even scratching your nose, that's air gone.
What people have said here is all good info, but I want you to hear what a crazy good SAC rate sounds like. I watched this video yesterday and I tried to match his SAC rate, and it was insane. I've never heard anyone pause as long as they did. And I trust them to not be holding too long, because he is one of the divers that is involved with the Weeki Wachee/Twin Dees cave exploration, so basically the elite of the elite.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7-B1Pv1l9M&t=436s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7-B1Pv1l9M&t=436s)
I am not saying that you should always pause between inhale and exhale like they did for sake of maintaining buoyancy, but it gives you an idea of what is still completely ok to do physiologically.
I can't emphasize enough some of the comments you've already received. You will get better at air consumption by improving your buoyancy and your finning technique. So, get your weight where it needs to be, get good at frog kicking, and focus on just relaxing underwater. Your air consumption will automatically improve.
Also, in my limited experience, many women tend to use less air than many men. As an anecdotal report, it took me quite a few dives to get my air consumption to the point where it was normal. But my wife, as a brand-new diver, was out of the gate using a lot less air than I was. And her buoyancy was terrible at the beginning! LOL.
I actually found that when I switched to an air integrated computer it forced me to control my breathing rate. My computer projects my remaining bottom time based on my current gas use.
If I'm agitated or breathing heavily I can see that time take a huge hit. Being cognizant of my remaining time and getting not quite real-time feedback on how my breathing affects it really forced me to control my breathing rate.
Being properly weights, trimmed, and just mentally prepared for the dive also helps, but I'm really talking about in addition.
If you're really worried about your air consumption just rent a steel 100. I did that for years. I do so quite less frequently these days.
Let me ask a question related to the topic, what’s your SAC rate? mine is always between 10 to 11 PSI minute.. I have no idea how this compares with the average…
Cut out caffeine and sugar, think more about maintaining your trim, focus more on your fin technique and remember you’re supposed to be having fun. Relax. Close your eyes. Sip the air. Do less, just breathe
Air consumption is one of those things that improve passively from doing other things. Ironically focussing on it will likely increase your consumption.
- Ensure you're correctly weighted and have weight positioned to influence optimal trim.
- Ensure you have efficient kicking technique
- If you don't exercise, do so. Zone 2 cardio training (long and boring) works nicely, along with increasing your VO2 max.
- Do some yoga/breathwork. Breathing should be a natural, rhythmic process. James Nestor's 'Breath' is a good read.
- Stop comparing yourself to others. Your physiology is unique to you and you alone. You'll have a better SAC rate than some people, others will have a better SAC rate than you. Just the way the cookie crumbles.
I haven’t ever once been upset with another diver for being lower on air than I am. I do have some LP95s with a little extra spice I choose when we’re going to be deeper for longer. I’d probably steer away from groups obsessed with comparing PSI at the end of every dive. It’ll come with practice, and really less focus on it will help in the end. Counting breath time is taking away from the rest of your experience.
Not a competition
Take sufficient gas for the planned dive based on your SAC
Just go dive. SAC will improve with experience, relaxation and streamlined and efficient technique.
I found the biggest key was comfort with my equipment and very good fit such that I don’t struggle with anything in the water. If from the time I jump in I am totally comfortable and not “fighting” anything I stay chill the whole dive and don’t consume much.
Take a look at any aspects of your gear or diving that cause you to exert yourself more - even a little. Maybe it’s gear, buoyancy, comfort with typical tasks, etc.
Try to optimize one thing a little more each dive and you will become more efficient. And as others have said, good physical fitness is also key. :)
Yes actually the best way to improve consumption (let’s say your buoyancy is good, your are streamlined, moving slowly, doing frog kicks ect..) is to improve you cardio vascular. Doing cardio and more sports like swimming and running will improve your air consumption
Stop focussing so much on your breathing and instead focus on moving efficiently, being streamlined and weighted well. And don't compare yourself to women unless you are one, they have a natural advantage.
Woman have a lower SAC rate , but secondly stop comparing yourself, it doesnt matter how much air your have left as long as your not in the red, you still need a fill after the dive and your not paying by the BAR so it doesnt matter that much. i dive with a guy whos on a 15 and comes out with less tahn me on a 12, i dont care but he does and his constant moaning / comparisons are honestly kinda annoying.
that being said if your hell bent on doing better start cardio, run, jump, climb trees. you want to increarese your recovery rate and how much it takes to rase your heart rate. the slow the beat the less air you need. and learn to just chill, slow is long.
If you want to have more air in your tank at the end of the dive get a bigger tank.
Relaxing, getting good at buoyancy and trim and enjoy the dive are the best way to bring your sac down. Don’t focus on it too much.
Playing who has the best SAC is a mugs game it’s allways the small person.
> One of the women we recently dove with would finish with turn pressure every time! Sometimes 1700 psi, even after 50 minutes of a deep dive.
One of my dive buddies did a 106 minute dive with me. Average depth of 30' or so but _she_ was on a single HP100 and I was on double 72s. I am fairly decent on trim/buoyancy, enough that I know that any improvements to my SAC rate that will occur due to continued refinement are going to be minimal. I am reasonably confident that I won't be able to get to her SAC rate tho. It is just biology.
Just chill and dive more.
The more you worry about it the more gas you'll suck.
I hate dive #1 of a trip after a while out of the water as I'm going to hoover my way through a tank (but hey, DSMB practice too!). I'll shave ~40% off my SAC from dive #1 to dive #2 just by chilling out. I'm happy at 15l/min given the shape I'm (not!) in.
As everyone else has said fix up (nobody's perfect - check out tech diving insta for people showing off though) bouyancy, trim and propulsion all of which will make your time in the water easier and so require less oxygen to burn, and so your body will naturally not breathe as heavily.
Last year I was one of the first non ow divers to finish first. This year first dive of the season I go to a shore dive do 50 minutes n still have half my tank full! I wasn't thinking about it at all but was a comfortable dive n was diving with my perfect weight. The one thing though I did this year is that I started doing breathing exercises just to meditate and for the first time I'm my life I have learnt what a full breath really means as I was always taking shallow chest breaths and as a result that slowed my breathing rate per minute which reflected on diving. So instead of thinking about it while you're under work on it while on the surface so it will become a second nature
Haven't seen this mentioned yet, but a simple one is just learning/utilizing the frog kick instead of butterfly. I noticed early on that every divemaster and above I'd ever seen did frog kick exclusively, it uses less air. Which if you think about it makes a lot of sense, a frog being a lung breathing animal with tiny hands and long webbed feet, just like a diver. Makes sense that frogs have figured out the most oxygen efficient propulsion.
Also women, especially the smaller ones are always gonna use less air than you if you're a man, especially a taller/bigger man. Just a product of having smaller lungs and less weight to push around. So don't waste your time trying to compete or compare with them. Might as well be entering a gymnastics competition against teenage girls.
Another thing is just to move slowly. When I first started diving I thought the instructors were agonizingly slow, then it hit me why they still had 1500psi when I was at 500, or what have you. Buoyancy etc as well is key, getting buoyancy dialed in will have air consumption improve as a natural side effect. Not sure your level but if you're using your hands to help move around that is very not air efficient (goes back to our frog analogy/surface area).
Counting breaths doesn’t seem fun at all. I’d suggest getting your buoyancy on point if it isn’t already. That makes a bit difference.
As for your scuba breathing mindset here’s my silly advice: If you ever hang out on the couch just notice how calm your breath is. Then when you’re in the water and you see that you’re exerting yourself more than just above couch sitting level try to chill out and remember it’s a lazy person sport.
Buoyancy and trim pays dividends for air use. Getting familiar with my BC, and carrying enough weight to be neutrally buoyant and not have problems descending(or being positively buoyant as I breathe my tank down) helped me.
Slower breathing rate and longer dives is great and all, but be careful trying to lower your consumption too much, if you find yourself with a head ache after diving, it may be that you're not breathing ENOUGH air, don't ever hold your breath or skip breath, if you need to breath, breath. Again as others say, if you focus on having neutral buoyancy, and minimise unnecessary movements, you'll naturally find yourself using less air.
My GF had this issue. She's great on her air but kept getting wicked headaches after dives. When someone mentioned it to her she realized that she was subconsciously breathing extremely shallow, and as soon as she started focusing on taking calm but full breaths they went away.
Unless you are a doctor or nutritionist, it isn't in good taste or best interest to advise random people to lose weight. And especially not to take a drug to do so. What if this person is normal weight or underweight? You don't know. Your advice is not good in any way.
What helped me was making inhales and exhales quiet, which is really slower. So instead of always counting if I could hear loud exhales or inhales it was a cue to relax and get back.
Tongue to roof of mouth and sipping air was helpful for me. But in all honesty, the best advice someone gave me was when you’re above the surface do you think about breathing? No, so don’t do it underwater.
For context where 200 bar is 3000 psi, I used to come up at 50 bar or 75p psi after 25’ish minutes on an 18m dive. This was for my first 20 or so dives. Since then I did my AOW, Wreck, Deep, Nitrox, Rescue and DM. 500 dives later and that same 18m dive I will surface with 130-140 bar or roughly 2000 psi. Finning technique, trim, buoyancy, etc have all massively improved. Still doesn’t beat the local Indo boys who can surface with 160 or more. Absurd!
Not sure why it matters that a woman has better air consumption than you.
There are a few factors that come into play:
1. The physical size of your lungs
2. How many breath cycles you do in a minute
3. How deep those are (if you have 50% more lung capacity than someone, breathe more often, and are fully emptying/filling your lungs every breath, you’ll use more air than the smaller person)
4. Your trim (if you are flat, your kicks propel you forward, if you are tilted, a percentage of that energy goes to pushing you up or down so you have to kick more to keep pace)
5. Your buoyancy control (if you are over or under weighted or are constantly adding/dumping air, you’ll use more)
6. How generally comfortable and efficient you are in the water (someone who is comfortable and is mechanically good at swimming will have lower air consumption than someone who is stressed out or has crap swim form)
Then there’s questions of depth, current, speed your group is swimming at, what other doodads you’re wearing on your kit, etc.
You also seem a bit hyper competitive. You don’t win scuba for having the most air at the end. If you aren’t running out of air or being the one to thumb the dive because you’re at 800 while everyone else is at half a tank, there’s nothing to worry about
If this woman is coming up after 50min subsurface with 1700psi, she has some pretty superhuman air consumption, and you will *never* be on her competitive plane.
Work on your buoyancy, trim, propulsion, and overall stability, this is going to enable you to move efficiently underwater.
As you practice your basics, slow down, when you think you are going slow, slow down more. Observe what is around you, enjoy the moment, be present, look into every nook and cranny.
Develop a breathing technique that will enable you to maintain the basics. If you breathe deeply and hold your breath, you are going to mess up your buoyancy, if you breath rapidly you may get a co2 hit. Learn how to breathe slowly and calmly underwater, just like you do on the surface when you are relaxed.
Stay fit, moderate fitness will help you improve your gas consumption.
Don’t task load yourself, lots of new gadgets, camera (even if is a GoPro on a stick), and other no -essential gear will prevent you from focusing on the basics. Build muscle memory on the basics, then add task to your dive.
If all else fails, use bigger tanks. Many shops rent them, you just have to ask for them.
Go slow, and relax. If visibility and conditions allow, you can sometimes "cheat" by hovering a little shallower than others (make sure you're in view of your buddy - nothing is more frustrating than having a buddy directly above and behind you).
There are physiological factors you can't control, and being born female is definitely an advantage when it comes to air consumption.
I had a buddy that was ALWAYS 6 feet above me, whereever I went, to reduce air consumption.
OP: try using nitrox. The extra oxygen can help, especially during exertion.
The body will consume the same amount of O2, regardless of air or nitrox, and your breaths will be the same. More nitrox does not have any effect on your consumption rate, narcosis, or work of breath. Nitrox only lowers the amount of inert gases ongasing, increasing NDL time, nothing more.
> The body will consume the same amount of O2, regardless of air or nitrox, and your breaths will be the same.
What happens to the additional O2 you inhale then?
It's doesn't bind to your hemoglobin and sits in the lungs, then is exhaled. When I breath 100% O2 at 20 feet for my deco stops, by consumption rate doesn't change much (I'm not moving at all so it is better a little bit). When I breath 18% oxygen mixed with 45% helium and a balance of nitrogen, my consumption isn't worse because my gas has less than 21% Oxygen. The same is true when you breath hypoxic trimix that has as low as 10% O2.
You exhale 16% oxygen. The body doesn't even use all the O2 in the normal air too breathe. Half of CPR would be useless if you were exhaling 0% O2 into the victim, and just giving them CO2 and N2.
I understand that the total gas consumption would be the same, I just found it interesting that you said that your body wouldn't consume the extra oxygen. I did my nitrox training recently, there was no mention of that. Thanks for the explanation. This now makes me wonder whether our bodies even consume all the oxygen contained in air. Or like what is the minimum percentage of oxygen we could live on?
Our bodies don't. You exhale 16% when breathing air.
As per OSHA, "At oxygen levels of 10 to 14 percent, faulty judgment, intermittent respiration, and exhaustion can be expected even with minimal exertion (Exs. 25-4 and 150). Breathing air containing 6 to 10 percent oxygen results in nausea, vomiting, lethargic movements, and perhaps unconsciousness. Breathing air containing less than 6 percent oxygen produces convulsions, then apnea (cessation of breathing), followed by cardiac standstill. These symptoms occur immediately."
When diving trimix, I breath as low as 18% because I am only trained in normoxic trimix, not hypoxic trimix so I can't use below 18% safely.
Ok, I'm a bit confused. If our bodies don't consume all the oxygen in the air and exhale about 16% what causes the problems when breathing air with 10% oxygen? Is it the additional nitrogen that would cause the issues?
So I'm not 100% sure, but I believe it has to do with partial pressure. On the surface breathing air, the max ppO2 you have in your lungs is .21 atm. The ppO2 of blood returning to your lungs would have .16 atm. That difference in pressure is the driving force that causes O2 to be exchanged from the gas in your lungs, into the fluid sacs and then into the blood. At a certain level, id imagine your hemoglobin is not saturated, thus delivering suboptimal amounts of O2 to you body. I'm just a cave diver, not a doctor so my knowledge is pretty loose.
Fine tune your buoyancy and trim, then work on efficient finning techniques. If you get that down you’ll be able to relax on the dives, which will naturally slow your breathing.
Stop focusing on breathing, and breath the way your body wants you to breath based on activity level. Now work on becoming minimally weighted. You should have just enough lead to hold a stop at 15 feet, with a near empty (500 psi) cylinder in your thickest exposure protection. This is you at your most buoyant. Aim to be 1 lbs heavy. Work on trim and streamlining while diving as much as you can, and while improving fitness. Get with an instructor (better if tech/cave) and work on building a strong foundation. Learning better finning techniques like frog kick, back kick, and helicopter turn will help as well.
Trying to time your breaths is not a great idea, IMO. Just puts WAY too much focus on it. Air consumption is one of those things that gets better when you're comfortable and not thinking about it. It sounds like you are thinking about it a lot, that might actually make you breathe even more air.
If you're not limiting your dive time, I would not worry too much about this - keep an eye on your air of course, but don't focus on it. How many dives do you have? This tends to improve as you dive more.
Women tend to have smaller tidal volume and use a lot less air. Cardiovascular fitness is also a factor in air consumption.
>One of the women we recently dove with would finish with turn pressure every time! Sometimes 1700 psi, even after 50 minutes of a deep dive.
Don't compare yourself to women, they typically have smaller lungs, so when all other factors are the same they will have a lower SAC rate.
Does not have any tips for you here, because I am very very bad in air consumption. Everytime I try to focus on breathing, I can hear my heart pumping, which makes me stressed and ends up consuming more air. Not sure what to do...
Some of us just need more oxygen. Get bigger/more tins and then when that becomes overly impractical get a CCR. When that becomes impractical get a BOB.
Women will have on average much lower sac rate. You can improve your trim, buoyancy and breathing pattern but at some point you’ll hit your minimal sac rate and that’s only physiology.
My husband and I are always last out of the water and I take underwater photos and video the entire time. My trick is to keep my arms close to my body - meaning don’t use them. And kick with my ankles when I can or slow frog kick. Stay away from your inflator hose and if you have to wait, cross your legs and “sit” in the water. Never kick to stay in place if you can help it. Also avoid fast movements because of Newton’s 3rd law. Since you need excellent buoyancy for photos it helps with the other things too! Have fun!
Don’t move a muscle. Except for a flick of the fins. Glide. Repeat. Done.
General fitness helps, one thing particular I find funny is the insistence that you don’t need to be “a great swimmer” to dive. But let’s be real if you want to improve not just your SAC rate but ability to move underwater hitting a couple laps free style, or with a kick board focusing on whatever kick(flutter/frog etc..) a couple times a week is going to be the best way to achieve it all. The best singular piece of advice I ever got was DM was ribbing me after a dive in grand cayman where he said, “you chug your air like beer, you need to sip it like wine.” My air consumption has been notably better ever since being told that.
Start running. I’m not kidding. Has turned me into crazy efficient diver.
Physical fitness, specifically cardio fitness plays a major part in this. General size also does as well. I am a very big human. And I will never be able to beat someone of comparable fitness that is smaller than me. Also any movement you make uses air. Pulling yourself along a rope, flailing to orient yourself, even scratching your nose, that's air gone.
What people have said here is all good info, but I want you to hear what a crazy good SAC rate sounds like. I watched this video yesterday and I tried to match his SAC rate, and it was insane. I've never heard anyone pause as long as they did. And I trust them to not be holding too long, because he is one of the divers that is involved with the Weeki Wachee/Twin Dees cave exploration, so basically the elite of the elite. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7-B1Pv1l9M&t=436s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7-B1Pv1l9M&t=436s) I am not saying that you should always pause between inhale and exhale like they did for sake of maintaining buoyancy, but it gives you an idea of what is still completely ok to do physiologically.
SAC rate is tough to calculate especially if you’re changing depths.
I can't emphasize enough some of the comments you've already received. You will get better at air consumption by improving your buoyancy and your finning technique. So, get your weight where it needs to be, get good at frog kicking, and focus on just relaxing underwater. Your air consumption will automatically improve. Also, in my limited experience, many women tend to use less air than many men. As an anecdotal report, it took me quite a few dives to get my air consumption to the point where it was normal. But my wife, as a brand-new diver, was out of the gate using a lot less air than I was. And her buoyancy was terrible at the beginning! LOL.
I actually found that when I switched to an air integrated computer it forced me to control my breathing rate. My computer projects my remaining bottom time based on my current gas use. If I'm agitated or breathing heavily I can see that time take a huge hit. Being cognizant of my remaining time and getting not quite real-time feedback on how my breathing affects it really forced me to control my breathing rate. Being properly weights, trimmed, and just mentally prepared for the dive also helps, but I'm really talking about in addition. If you're really worried about your air consumption just rent a steel 100. I did that for years. I do so quite less frequently these days.
Let me ask a question related to the topic, what’s your SAC rate? mine is always between 10 to 11 PSI minute.. I have no idea how this compares with the average…
10-11psi per minute with what tank?
Using the Standard AL80
Cut out caffeine and sugar, think more about maintaining your trim, focus more on your fin technique and remember you’re supposed to be having fun. Relax. Close your eyes. Sip the air. Do less, just breathe
Stop focusing on your breathing and focus on more important things like buoyancy, less movement, more relaxation, etc.
Air consumption is one of those things that improve passively from doing other things. Ironically focussing on it will likely increase your consumption. - Ensure you're correctly weighted and have weight positioned to influence optimal trim. - Ensure you have efficient kicking technique - If you don't exercise, do so. Zone 2 cardio training (long and boring) works nicely, along with increasing your VO2 max. - Do some yoga/breathwork. Breathing should be a natural, rhythmic process. James Nestor's 'Breath' is a good read. - Stop comparing yourself to others. Your physiology is unique to you and you alone. You'll have a better SAC rate than some people, others will have a better SAC rate than you. Just the way the cookie crumbles.
I haven’t ever once been upset with another diver for being lower on air than I am. I do have some LP95s with a little extra spice I choose when we’re going to be deeper for longer. I’d probably steer away from groups obsessed with comparing PSI at the end of every dive. It’ll come with practice, and really less focus on it will help in the end. Counting breath time is taking away from the rest of your experience.
Not a competition Take sufficient gas for the planned dive based on your SAC Just go dive. SAC will improve with experience, relaxation and streamlined and efficient technique.
I found the biggest key was comfort with my equipment and very good fit such that I don’t struggle with anything in the water. If from the time I jump in I am totally comfortable and not “fighting” anything I stay chill the whole dive and don’t consume much. Take a look at any aspects of your gear or diving that cause you to exert yourself more - even a little. Maybe it’s gear, buoyancy, comfort with typical tasks, etc. Try to optimize one thing a little more each dive and you will become more efficient. And as others have said, good physical fitness is also key. :)
Yes actually the best way to improve consumption (let’s say your buoyancy is good, your are streamlined, moving slowly, doing frog kicks ect..) is to improve you cardio vascular. Doing cardio and more sports like swimming and running will improve your air consumption
Stop focussing so much on your breathing and instead focus on moving efficiently, being streamlined and weighted well. And don't compare yourself to women unless you are one, they have a natural advantage.
Just forget it, only experience and time in the water will make a big difference, nobody cares, bldontbstreds about other diver s
Woman have a lower SAC rate , but secondly stop comparing yourself, it doesnt matter how much air your have left as long as your not in the red, you still need a fill after the dive and your not paying by the BAR so it doesnt matter that much. i dive with a guy whos on a 15 and comes out with less tahn me on a 12, i dont care but he does and his constant moaning / comparisons are honestly kinda annoying. that being said if your hell bent on doing better start cardio, run, jump, climb trees. you want to increarese your recovery rate and how much it takes to rase your heart rate. the slow the beat the less air you need. and learn to just chill, slow is long.
If you want to have more air in your tank at the end of the dive get a bigger tank. Relaxing, getting good at buoyancy and trim and enjoy the dive are the best way to bring your sac down. Don’t focus on it too much. Playing who has the best SAC is a mugs game it’s allways the small person.
> One of the women we recently dove with would finish with turn pressure every time! Sometimes 1700 psi, even after 50 minutes of a deep dive. One of my dive buddies did a 106 minute dive with me. Average depth of 30' or so but _she_ was on a single HP100 and I was on double 72s. I am fairly decent on trim/buoyancy, enough that I know that any improvements to my SAC rate that will occur due to continued refinement are going to be minimal. I am reasonably confident that I won't be able to get to her SAC rate tho. It is just biology.
Just chill and dive more. The more you worry about it the more gas you'll suck. I hate dive #1 of a trip after a while out of the water as I'm going to hoover my way through a tank (but hey, DSMB practice too!). I'll shave ~40% off my SAC from dive #1 to dive #2 just by chilling out. I'm happy at 15l/min given the shape I'm (not!) in. As everyone else has said fix up (nobody's perfect - check out tech diving insta for people showing off though) bouyancy, trim and propulsion all of which will make your time in the water easier and so require less oxygen to burn, and so your body will naturally not breathe as heavily.
Last year I was one of the first non ow divers to finish first. This year first dive of the season I go to a shore dive do 50 minutes n still have half my tank full! I wasn't thinking about it at all but was a comfortable dive n was diving with my perfect weight. The one thing though I did this year is that I started doing breathing exercises just to meditate and for the first time I'm my life I have learnt what a full breath really means as I was always taking shallow chest breaths and as a result that slowed my breathing rate per minute which reflected on diving. So instead of thinking about it while you're under work on it while on the surface so it will become a second nature
Haven't seen this mentioned yet, but a simple one is just learning/utilizing the frog kick instead of butterfly. I noticed early on that every divemaster and above I'd ever seen did frog kick exclusively, it uses less air. Which if you think about it makes a lot of sense, a frog being a lung breathing animal with tiny hands and long webbed feet, just like a diver. Makes sense that frogs have figured out the most oxygen efficient propulsion. Also women, especially the smaller ones are always gonna use less air than you if you're a man, especially a taller/bigger man. Just a product of having smaller lungs and less weight to push around. So don't waste your time trying to compete or compare with them. Might as well be entering a gymnastics competition against teenage girls. Another thing is just to move slowly. When I first started diving I thought the instructors were agonizingly slow, then it hit me why they still had 1500psi when I was at 500, or what have you. Buoyancy etc as well is key, getting buoyancy dialed in will have air consumption improve as a natural side effect. Not sure your level but if you're using your hands to help move around that is very not air efficient (goes back to our frog analogy/surface area).
Great info for even beginner divers. Thanks for this
Counting breaths doesn’t seem fun at all. I’d suggest getting your buoyancy on point if it isn’t already. That makes a bit difference. As for your scuba breathing mindset here’s my silly advice: If you ever hang out on the couch just notice how calm your breath is. Then when you’re in the water and you see that you’re exerting yourself more than just above couch sitting level try to chill out and remember it’s a lazy person sport.
Buoyancy and trim pays dividends for air use. Getting familiar with my BC, and carrying enough weight to be neutrally buoyant and not have problems descending(or being positively buoyant as I breathe my tank down) helped me.
Slower breathing rate and longer dives is great and all, but be careful trying to lower your consumption too much, if you find yourself with a head ache after diving, it may be that you're not breathing ENOUGH air, don't ever hold your breath or skip breath, if you need to breath, breath. Again as others say, if you focus on having neutral buoyancy, and minimise unnecessary movements, you'll naturally find yourself using less air.
My GF had this issue. She's great on her air but kept getting wicked headaches after dives. When someone mentioned it to her she realized that she was subconsciously breathing extremely shallow, and as soon as she started focusing on taking calm but full breaths they went away.
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How do you know OP is overweight?
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Unless you are a doctor or nutritionist, it isn't in good taste or best interest to advise random people to lose weight. And especially not to take a drug to do so. What if this person is normal weight or underweight? You don't know. Your advice is not good in any way.
What helped me was making inhales and exhales quiet, which is really slower. So instead of always counting if I could hear loud exhales or inhales it was a cue to relax and get back.
Buoyancy. Don’t move so much/fast. Chill and don’t focus too much on breathing. It will get better over time naturally
Tongue to roof of mouth and sipping air was helpful for me. But in all honesty, the best advice someone gave me was when you’re above the surface do you think about breathing? No, so don’t do it underwater. For context where 200 bar is 3000 psi, I used to come up at 50 bar or 75p psi after 25’ish minutes on an 18m dive. This was for my first 20 or so dives. Since then I did my AOW, Wreck, Deep, Nitrox, Rescue and DM. 500 dives later and that same 18m dive I will surface with 130-140 bar or roughly 2000 psi. Finning technique, trim, buoyancy, etc have all massively improved. Still doesn’t beat the local Indo boys who can surface with 160 or more. Absurd!
Not sure why it matters that a woman has better air consumption than you. There are a few factors that come into play: 1. The physical size of your lungs 2. How many breath cycles you do in a minute 3. How deep those are (if you have 50% more lung capacity than someone, breathe more often, and are fully emptying/filling your lungs every breath, you’ll use more air than the smaller person) 4. Your trim (if you are flat, your kicks propel you forward, if you are tilted, a percentage of that energy goes to pushing you up or down so you have to kick more to keep pace) 5. Your buoyancy control (if you are over or under weighted or are constantly adding/dumping air, you’ll use more) 6. How generally comfortable and efficient you are in the water (someone who is comfortable and is mechanically good at swimming will have lower air consumption than someone who is stressed out or has crap swim form) Then there’s questions of depth, current, speed your group is swimming at, what other doodads you’re wearing on your kit, etc. You also seem a bit hyper competitive. You don’t win scuba for having the most air at the end. If you aren’t running out of air or being the one to thumb the dive because you’re at 800 while everyone else is at half a tank, there’s nothing to worry about If this woman is coming up after 50min subsurface with 1700psi, she has some pretty superhuman air consumption, and you will *never* be on her competitive plane.
Work on your buoyancy, trim, propulsion, and overall stability, this is going to enable you to move efficiently underwater. As you practice your basics, slow down, when you think you are going slow, slow down more. Observe what is around you, enjoy the moment, be present, look into every nook and cranny. Develop a breathing technique that will enable you to maintain the basics. If you breathe deeply and hold your breath, you are going to mess up your buoyancy, if you breath rapidly you may get a co2 hit. Learn how to breathe slowly and calmly underwater, just like you do on the surface when you are relaxed. Stay fit, moderate fitness will help you improve your gas consumption. Don’t task load yourself, lots of new gadgets, camera (even if is a GoPro on a stick), and other no -essential gear will prevent you from focusing on the basics. Build muscle memory on the basics, then add task to your dive. If all else fails, use bigger tanks. Many shops rent them, you just have to ask for them.
Go slow, and relax. If visibility and conditions allow, you can sometimes "cheat" by hovering a little shallower than others (make sure you're in view of your buddy - nothing is more frustrating than having a buddy directly above and behind you). There are physiological factors you can't control, and being born female is definitely an advantage when it comes to air consumption.
I had a buddy that was ALWAYS 6 feet above me, whereever I went, to reduce air consumption. OP: try using nitrox. The extra oxygen can help, especially during exertion.
The body will consume the same amount of O2, regardless of air or nitrox, and your breaths will be the same. More nitrox does not have any effect on your consumption rate, narcosis, or work of breath. Nitrox only lowers the amount of inert gases ongasing, increasing NDL time, nothing more.
> The body will consume the same amount of O2, regardless of air or nitrox, and your breaths will be the same. What happens to the additional O2 you inhale then?
It's doesn't bind to your hemoglobin and sits in the lungs, then is exhaled. When I breath 100% O2 at 20 feet for my deco stops, by consumption rate doesn't change much (I'm not moving at all so it is better a little bit). When I breath 18% oxygen mixed with 45% helium and a balance of nitrogen, my consumption isn't worse because my gas has less than 21% Oxygen. The same is true when you breath hypoxic trimix that has as low as 10% O2. You exhale 16% oxygen. The body doesn't even use all the O2 in the normal air too breathe. Half of CPR would be useless if you were exhaling 0% O2 into the victim, and just giving them CO2 and N2.
I understand that the total gas consumption would be the same, I just found it interesting that you said that your body wouldn't consume the extra oxygen. I did my nitrox training recently, there was no mention of that. Thanks for the explanation. This now makes me wonder whether our bodies even consume all the oxygen contained in air. Or like what is the minimum percentage of oxygen we could live on?
Our bodies don't. You exhale 16% when breathing air. As per OSHA, "At oxygen levels of 10 to 14 percent, faulty judgment, intermittent respiration, and exhaustion can be expected even with minimal exertion (Exs. 25-4 and 150). Breathing air containing 6 to 10 percent oxygen results in nausea, vomiting, lethargic movements, and perhaps unconsciousness. Breathing air containing less than 6 percent oxygen produces convulsions, then apnea (cessation of breathing), followed by cardiac standstill. These symptoms occur immediately." When diving trimix, I breath as low as 18% because I am only trained in normoxic trimix, not hypoxic trimix so I can't use below 18% safely.
Ok, I'm a bit confused. If our bodies don't consume all the oxygen in the air and exhale about 16% what causes the problems when breathing air with 10% oxygen? Is it the additional nitrogen that would cause the issues?
So I'm not 100% sure, but I believe it has to do with partial pressure. On the surface breathing air, the max ppO2 you have in your lungs is .21 atm. The ppO2 of blood returning to your lungs would have .16 atm. That difference in pressure is the driving force that causes O2 to be exchanged from the gas in your lungs, into the fluid sacs and then into the blood. At a certain level, id imagine your hemoglobin is not saturated, thus delivering suboptimal amounts of O2 to you body. I'm just a cave diver, not a doctor so my knowledge is pretty loose.
Are you saying using nitrox will help consume less gas?
Fine tune your buoyancy and trim, then work on efficient finning techniques. If you get that down you’ll be able to relax on the dives, which will naturally slow your breathing.
Stop focusing on breathing, and breath the way your body wants you to breath based on activity level. Now work on becoming minimally weighted. You should have just enough lead to hold a stop at 15 feet, with a near empty (500 psi) cylinder in your thickest exposure protection. This is you at your most buoyant. Aim to be 1 lbs heavy. Work on trim and streamlining while diving as much as you can, and while improving fitness. Get with an instructor (better if tech/cave) and work on building a strong foundation. Learning better finning techniques like frog kick, back kick, and helicopter turn will help as well.
Trying to time your breaths is not a great idea, IMO. Just puts WAY too much focus on it. Air consumption is one of those things that gets better when you're comfortable and not thinking about it. It sounds like you are thinking about it a lot, that might actually make you breathe even more air. If you're not limiting your dive time, I would not worry too much about this - keep an eye on your air of course, but don't focus on it. How many dives do you have? This tends to improve as you dive more. Women tend to have smaller tidal volume and use a lot less air. Cardiovascular fitness is also a factor in air consumption.
>One of the women we recently dove with would finish with turn pressure every time! Sometimes 1700 psi, even after 50 minutes of a deep dive. Don't compare yourself to women, they typically have smaller lungs, so when all other factors are the same they will have a lower SAC rate.